Week of 1 May - 8 May
Following my highlander comp down in Norfolk (write up is coming, I swear), I ended up taking a full week off from any and all training for the first time in years. I have taken deloads and had weeks where I may have just played around in the gym, but not actually refrained from all training for so long that I honestly can't even remember when I did this last.
The lone break from my training abstinence was attending day 1 of a two day weightlifting seminar at Georgetown University taught by 5x national champion, Donny Shankle. I went through a warmup, some snatch drills and positions, and worked up to a single at about 80% of my 1RM. I sadly was unable to attend the second day because I had to be at school for much of the day on Sunday to study in the respiratory and acute care labs for my final practical exam on Monday in my Therapeutic Exercise for Patients with Stroke and TBI class. This was one more massive disappointment in the ever-growing list of awesome shit I have had to miss out on due to PT school that includes a multitude of conferences, competitions, and vacations among other things. At least this time I didn't miss out on the entire experience and getting to learn from and be coached by Shankle was a million percent gnarly. HUGE thanks to Georgetown S&C Coach Dave Terry for putting the seminar together. I felt guilty as hell about not being able to attend the second day or being able to hang out with Dave, Captain Carl, and MASTER Hill, but there was no way I would have been able to wing my final practical and besides just myself, I had my partner for the exam, Frank the Tank, to think of as well (we served as each other's patient for our respective practicals, so studying and practicing the skills together was crucial).
The week off from training was predicated by a number of school-related factors such as visiting Kernan all day for observation and skill practice in an orthopedic and neuro hospital on a day I usually only had morning classes, studying for and taking exams and practicals, putting together and delivering presentations, etc. Taking a week off made me feel like I had a lot of extra energy all the time and it really screwed up my sleep as well, since I had more energy and was less tired, I slept a couple hours less per night so I was waking up in the middle of the night feeling fully rested, but then would start to fade earlier in the day than normal, which would then cause me to go to bed earlier than normal, and wake up in the middle of the night again. The moral of the story here is that I hated taking a week off. I would much rather deload or at the very least participate in active rest by playing sports or engaging in physically active outdoor activities than literally doing nothing for a week. I honestly had no other alternative though ass I really had no free time at all (hence why I am way behind on my training logs for the first time in a long time as well). I took my first possible opportunity to train and get back into the swing of things following my competition on Sunday, 30 April, but that wasn't until Tuesday, 9 May.